I teach a range of jewellery making short courses in my central London workshop - this month I would like to share more about the soapstone carving course I offer.

This course next runs on Sunday 30 April and then on Saturday 17 June and the day costs £130 per person, to create your own unique carved and polished stone pendant or individual paperweight.

During the day we will look at blocking out and planning a design, using simple hand tools to create your chosen design, and then smoothing and polishing your carved surface if desired.

Soapstone is a particularly soft stone - because it is soft and easy to work, it was one of the first materials carved to make decorative items by our distant ancestors, and has continued to be carved right to today - to carve it, all you need are hand tools such as files and drills.

The stone has a gorgeous tactile quality and creates beautiful sculptures - it can be polished smooth, or you can create surface textures or patterns. This day is a creative day exploring shapes and using the soapstone to experiment with the process of sculpting.

*** THIS IS NOT A LAPIDARY COURSE and these skills are not directly transferable to working with precious or semiprecious gemstones as these are much harder and require different equipment to shape them.